It looks like Steph Curry and Sean “Diddy” Combs will not be the next owners of the Carolina Panthers after all, according to new reports. As it turns out, the two men allegedly joined forces as minority partners with Michael Rubin, the billionaire founder of online sports merchandiser Fanatics, and after the bidding ran up to a record-breaking figure of $2.5 billion, Rubin dropped out Bloomberg reports.
According to ESPN, however, Rubin remains interested in the potential purchase with an anonymous source alleging that he may go higher than his original bid for the “right price.” The accuracy of the record-breaking price also remains unconfirmed, but currently, the Panthers franchise if valued at $2.3 billion by Forbes. This sale would dethrone the Houston Rockets famous purchase price of $2.2 billion when Tilman J. Fertitta bought the team last year.
You’ll recall that it was at the tail end of 2017—after Panthers owner Jerry Richardson announced his intent to sell the team amid several harassment allegations—that Diddy publicly announced his plans to put his name in the running for the team, noting that there are no majority African-American owners in the National Football League. His announcement came at the height of the kneeling during the national anthem controversy during the 2017 season and offered yet another narrative in the topic of race in professional sports—specifically the NFL. His first order of business would have been to employ Colin Kaepernick who, after opting out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers last year, remains unemployed in the league in a move many viewed as backlash for his kneeling during the anthem.
“I will immediately address the Colin Kaepernick situation and put him in the running for next year’s starting quarterback,” Diddy declared in a video. “It’s just competition, baby, it’s just competition. But also, I would have the best halftime show, the best selection of music and we would win Super Bowl after Super Bowl.”
Soon after, Steph Curry, a North Carolina native, would also make public is interest in joining Diddy in the running.